{"id":9,"date":"2024-06-05T19:24:39","date_gmt":"2024-06-05T19:24:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tessgalati.wpenginepowered.com\/?page_id=9"},"modified":"2025-01-06T21:28:17","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T21:28:17","slug":"tess-galati","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/tessgalati.com\/","title":{"rendered":"Tess Galati"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Tess Galati, Author<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My Work<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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I woke up in a sweat from a dream that told me to teach people working in corner offices and crowded cubicles how to write. I got to work writing videos and books (Writing for the Information Age; Email Composition and Communication; Language Control: Structure and Spin<\/em>). My work won national awards and was adopted by hundreds of corporations and government agencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My next assignment came in a jagged dream about three generations of women, so in 2017, I published a book of poetry\u2014Holy Trinity<\/a><\/em>: Maiden, Mother, Crone<\/a><\/em>. It seems I misunderstood the assignment. I was to write three novels based on the lives of my ancestors, a dynasty of women who suffered the indignities of misogyny, the horrors of war, the suffering of famine, and the dystopia of immigration. The middle book, titled Evanthia<\/em>, is finished. The crone\u2019s story is well on its way. Beta readers hound me to get the book out, and the ancestors smile while I run my engines to finish the second novel and see Evanthia<\/em> on bookshelves and screens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Greek mythology, three women\u2014the Fates\u2014weave, measure, and cut off each life. They use the tools\u2014loom, needle, measuring tape, scissors\u2014 that women in times past used to create dowries for their daughters. In 2022, my friend Alice Gebura used a different tool\u2014filmmaking\u2014to tell the story of the women who made the extraordinary textiles in my own dowry. The 15-minute film was selected for the Twin Cities Film Fest, and it has gotten rave reviews. Take a look www.dowry-film.com.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

My Life<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In 1948, civil war burned through the streets of Athens, Greece, and Communists kidnapped children by the thousands. I clung to mother\u2019s skirt and climbed the side of the Marine Carp<\/em>, a ship that would take us to America. We would end up in Iowa, where father waited. At seventeen, mother sent me back to \u201cthe old country\u201d to be appropriately groomed and correctly married, but I returned to the U.S. triumphant and unmarried. I picked up a passel of scholarships, completed a Ph.D., and set about living my life from the inside out. I became a mother once, wife twice, waitress briefly, college professor, counseling center director, and practicing psychologist. My work as a writing consultant in corporate America stimulated my mind and fed my family. Finally, having swept away most of the encumbrances in my life, I was free to paint, tend bees, play with my grandchildren, entertain guests, travel, garden, and cook on impulse and without ambition. And I was free to write the women\u2019s stories that I was born to tell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holy Trinity: Maiden Mother Crone<\/h3>\n\n\n
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Click image to purchase book.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The Holy Trinity–Father, Son, and Holy Ghost\u2014leaves out the feminine. My icon, written in the Byzantine tradition, tracks a different holy trinity. It presents the core connection and conflict of maiden, mother, and crone\u2014the three phases a woman must enter and integrate to become whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the icon, the staff morphs into the double helix of DNA, symbolizing the tree of life. The Maiden holds the egg, symbol of life, and points to the staff, unconsciously indicating that her body is the vessel that creates life. The Mother, wary of what her daughter may face, points to the egg and holds the staff like a javelin, as though she\u2019s willing to throw it rather than have her damaged by its power. The Crone, who is closest to wisdom and death, looks to the growing edge of the tree and holds the staff easily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Byzantine icons tell archetypal stories that explain and direct the life of the soul.  They are meant to be read for meaning, not admired for form. As you read this icon and the words in this book, you follow one woman\u2019s soul in its journey toward personal integration and universal celebration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Crone Clue of the Week<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If you can\u2019t stand the heat, you\u2019ll never get to the fire.<\/strong>
Critique is the heat that stokes the fire of creation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tess Galati, Author My Work I woke up in a sweat from a dream that told me to teach people working in corner offices and crowded cubicles how to write. I got to work writing videos and books (Writing for …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-9","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tessgalati.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tessgalati.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tessgalati.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tessgalati.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tessgalati.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tessgalati.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tessgalati.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}